[Proj] etmerc original author Knud Poder turns 90.

[Thomas Knudsen]

After my recent post about Knud Poder, I was contacted by geodesy
professor Martin Vermeer, of Aalto University, Finland, who used to
collaborate with Knud Poder. He asked med to post this follow up to
the proj mailing list. So I hereby hand over the microphone to Martin:


Yes, I recently corresponded with Poder and yes, he actively follows
the field.

Back in 1988-1992 when I was in Denmark at the National Survey &
Cadastre -- and before that, the Geodætisk Institut in Ordrup, in a
beautiful country estate --, we saw a lot of each other. He was always
ready to help and explain about the GIER computers and the BOSS
operating system. I remember entering his room, negotiating my way
through the tangible pipe tobacco smoke filling the room, to find him
sitting at his glass teletype terminal, writing code. A Unix nerd, he
too. A thick aluminum ash tray by his side, which had seen all the
mountain tops of Greenland :-)

Dr Poder was made an honorary doctor at Copenhagen University,
proposed IIRC by Carl Christian Tscherning, who died a year ago. That
was early 1990s.

Knud's life hasn't always been easy: a few years later his son Niels
suffered an internal organ failure and was left brain damaged as a
result. That was tough.

/ Martin Vermeer
former employee and colleague at what is now the Danish Geodata Agency